| MONTEREY POP |
"A decent time capsule; that's about it."
Rob Gonsalves says... "What is it about '60s milestone films that end up eliciting a "guess you had to be there" response from the newcomer years later? You can know how significant and influential a film was, but if it doesn't grab you, it doesn't grab you. That's that." (more)
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| MUTANT SWINGER FROM MARS |
"This shit needs to stop."
Jay Seaver says... "SCREENED AT THE 2010 BOSTON SCI-FI FILM FESTIVAL: Shouldn't young filmmakers with no money have moved on from spoofing bad 1950s sci-fi by now? It's too easy a target if the intent is to skewer, and if the goal is to pay tribute, a filmmaker would honor what was enjoyable about those movies far more by following the intent of these "classics" - making the best sci-fi movies they can with what they have available - and improving on the results. Because when you do what Michael Kallio does with "Mutant Swinger from Mars" and try to recreate crap, you succeed - at making crap." (more)
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| HELLRAISER |
"Cenobite Me"
Charles Tatum says... "When Clive Barker's demonic horror film came out in 1987, it debuted in the Golden Decade of the Slasher Film, and confounded everyone by succeeding." (more)
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| MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA, THE: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS |
"How a guy with a Xerox machine made Washington very nervous."
Lybarger says... "The star and subject of ‘The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers’ now looks like a quiet, friendly grandfather. But nearly half a century ago, his actions helped topple a president and raised important issues about what the phrases “freedom of speech” and “national security” really mean." (more)
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| FROZEN |
"As we say in the movie's New England setting, it's wicked decent."
Jay Seaver says... ""Frozen" is straightforward, at times almost to a fault. In short order, we get friends with a certain amount of tension between them, a situation we really wouldn't want to be in, and things getting worse. Fortunately, this is a case where "things get worse" means "things get good"." (more)
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| CRAZY HEART |
"Bridges is the movie, as he so often is."
Rob Gonsalves says... "Suddenly, everyone has noticed how great Jeff Bridges is, though he’s been great for about four decades now." (more)
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| QUIGLEY |
"For hardcore pom fans only."
Rob Gonsalves says... "You have no idea how much I'd love to announce that "Quigley" is so insane and surreal it rockets beyond bad and crashes into brilliance. For here we have a film in which Gary Busey dies and comes back as a pomeranian. What's more, we often see Busey wearing a dog collar, looking roughly as bugfuck as he used to look on "I'm with Busey." He sometimes growls and barks, too. Anyone who appreciates the twilight zone that is Busey might be expecting an extreme cult classic, something to be enjoyed in an altered state." (more)
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| FROM PARIS WITH LOVE |
"Like a wild, fun ride, minus most of the fun"
brianorndorf says... "With “District B13” and last year’s runaway train of parental purpose, “Taken,” Pierre Morel positioned himself as a superior action director, and one of the few film minds able to process producer Luc Besson’s harebrained story ideas and cockamamie characterizations. “From Paris with Love” is their latest collaboration, but the timing is off, the script’s stupidity is more grating than endearing, and Morel is forced to contend with a giant slab of Hormel’s finest (assuming the shape of John Travolta) for this action-comedy. These are simple ingredients, but Morel and Besson appear distracted for this round of Euro smash-em-up, making the film disappointingly clumsy and strangely unadventurous." (more)
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| SECRET OF KELLS, THE |
"An education, with fairies and vikings"
brianorndorf says... "As strikingly animated and superlatively textured a motion picture as “The Secret of Kells” is, it can be a little aloof. A blend of history and mythology, the feature is a distinctive enterprise that aims to challenge family audiences and animation purists with a tenaciously 2-D snapshot of the world. It’s a passionate, dreamlike offering of filmmaking that requires the viewer to surrender to its often challenging storytelling, yet the time invested with this fringe player in the animation marketplace clash of the titans is rewarded with a resourceful, exquisite tale of tradition and education." (more)
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| DEAR JOHN |
"Tissues, beaches, and daddy issues, Nicholas Sparks returns"
brianorndorf says... "With “Dear John,” Channing Tatum imparts a performance of startling vulnerability. It’s an emotion previously unseen from the actor, who mostly gravitates to roles that require intense amounts of pouting, Gap-ad posing, and B-boy grunts. It’s Channing’s newfound sense of soulful release that helps the sudser “Dear John” locate a special footing to work with, heading into the manipulative universe of author Nicholas Sparks armed with a somewhat settled, organic mood of emotional response to best repel the onion-peeling shamelessness of the whole endeavor." (more)
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